New Feature Article and Podcast on Big Data and Information Governance

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I was working on new feature article for Law Technology News about about how making more and more data “easily accessible” is both essential for Big Data to fulfill its promise and also a huge risk to privacy, intellectual property, and so on.

The promise of Big Data is based on a central assumption: that information will be easily, quickly, and cheaply available, on a grand scale. The plumbing of Big Data — the technology infrastructure — is designed to bring internet scale to enterprise data. Some of the surprising insights that data scientists hope to gain from Big Data analytics come from correlating information from disparate sources, in a context that was never imagined when the information was first created — such as correlating the type of computer used to book a trip with how much a traveler is willing to pay for a hotel room. Or using prescription drug history to screen health insurance applicants.

The problem of protecting privacy, intellectual property, and other rights will only grow more complex as our ability to access and process information becomes more sophisticated.

I also write about how these issues came to the forefront in the wake of the shooting tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newton, CT. I also explore emerging technology that allows electronic content to “self-destruct.”